Introduction

The Year is 2999

Star Fleet centres around the crew of the X-Bomber who
must defend the galaxy from the evil Imperial Alliance. The Imperial Master
is anxious because the dawn of the new millennium is nearly at hand and
the only being in the universe who can stand against him (the F01) has
still not been found. If the F01 lives into the 31 century then his plans
to dominate the entire universe will be crushed. He entrusts the capture
of the F01 to his emissary: the maniacal Commander Makara, who with her
loyal aid: Captain Orion travels across the galaxy to our solar system,
where she believes the F01 is in hiding.

Pluto alpha base is the first to fall under Imperial attack,
and is completely destroyed. With Pluto Base gone the only thing in between
Earth and Commander Makara is Moon Base and the crew of X-Bomber (A prototype
vessel armed to the teeth and carrier of the devastating Dai-X). Will
Dr Ben and a brave trio of earth cadets; Shiro Hagen, John Lee and Barry
Hercules, along with Princess Lamia, her bodyguard Kirara and a perfectly
programed android named: P.P.A. be able to save the earth from the evil
Thalian invaders? And just who or what is the mysterious F01?...

Star Fleet

Star Fleet is the English language version of the Japanese
show; X Bomber. X Bomber was first shown in Japan in 1980 and was their
answer to the Gerry Anderson shows that had been so popular. Unfortunately
it never really took off in Japan, Luckily it was sold to the western
market and was redubbed as Star Fleet.

Star Fleet was first shown in the UK on Saturday the 30th
October 1982 at 10am, just before Big Daddy's Saturday Show (EASY! EASY!)
It was a big hit with British children right from the Start, and was featured
on the cover of Look In magazine on the week of it's first transmission.

The show was unusual in the way that it had a continuing
story arc rather than just stand alone episodes. The Japanese design was
incredibly fresh and new to a British audience, and some of the alliance
characters, in particular the Imperial Master were genuinely frightening
to a young audience.

There were depictions of brainwashing, torture and death
during the course of the series, and by the end of episode 24 there was
a definite resolution to the story. This was still very much a kids show,
but it did have dark themes running through it, which were often offset
by Lamia's warm character and some comic banter between Hercules and P.P.A.
This was a fairy tale with space ships and robots, it borrowed heavily
from Star Wars but brought plenty of new ideas to the party.

The Star of the Show

Ask people about Star Fleet, and you can bet they will
mention "the big red robot". The Dai X was one of the most memorable
aspects of the show, and was arguably one of the first transforming style
robots to be seen on British television as It predates Bandai's 1983 U.K.
release of the Robomachine range by a year. Of course Giant Robots were
nothing new to the Japanese audience. By the time Dai X first appeared
on Star Fleet in 1982, the Japanese had already enjoyed well over a decade
of this sort of giant robot action. Mazinger Z was one of the most popular
of these giant robo's Go Nagi was the creator of Mazinger Z and many other
classic robots including the Dai X.

Dai X made it's debut in Japan in 1980 in X Bomber. He
also appeared in toy form in this year, with most of the X Bomber toy
range dedicated to the Dai X. The Dai X toys were known by many other
variant names like: Dekander Robo. This particular incarnation was in
the same style as the other giant robo: "Jumbo" toys of the
time, such as the Super Machinder line. Another version of the Dai X was:
Dengeki Gashin, which was an incredibly detailed diecast version of the
big guy. Unfortunately X Bomber was canceled after just 12 episodes, so
he never really had the same chance to gather a big following in the same
way as other Go Nagi creations. It would be another 2 years before the
Dai X would return, this time to the U.K. in our version of X Bomber:
Star Fleet.

The Dai X was a huge hit with children in the U.K. Look
In magazine even ran an offer for a Big Dai X t-shirt because of his popularity.
As mentioned above this was the U.K.'s first high profile transformer
style robot to feature prominantley in a television show. And was also
a sneak peak at the "guy in a robot suit" sort of action that
was to be even more successful in the 1990's with the Mighty Morphing
Power Rangers. Work got a little tight for Dai X after Star Fleet finished
it's run in 1983. He made an appearance on the cover of Brian May's Star
Fleet Project mini album in 1984 but felt quite embarassed about it afterwards.
Since 1984 the Dai X has had a very low profile compared to other classic
robot's such as Gundam which are still going strong today. He did appear
as part of a set of Go Nagi character figures, but that was about it.
Fear not though, we may not have seen the last of Big Dai X.

Japanese Origins

X Bomber was first transmitted in Japan on the 11th of
October 1980. The show was due to run for 25 episodes but was canceled
after only 12 due to poor viewing figures. While the repackaged and redubbed
UK incarnation of this show was fresh and new to British viewers in the
early Eighties, to a Japanese audience, X Bomber's story and style was
old hat. Even Big Dai X was dismissed as a fairly bland looking piece
of mecha compared to Go Nagi's past creations.

X Bomber was designed to be Japan's answer to Thunderbirds.
The Space ships built for the show were incredible pieces of work and
in the case of the X Bomber and Imperial Alliance Battle Cruiser absolutely
massive in scale. These Impressive props were involved in some of the
best model shot action sequences of any show of this type. The battle
sequence between Makara's Cruiser and a fleet of EDF astro fighters in
episode 1 is quite a spectacle. Thunderbirds had never pulled off anything
that complex.

Add to this the fact that the show had it's very own transforming
super robot: The Dai X which could fly around interacting in these battles,
and you should have had a recipe for success. X Bomber again scored highly
with the crafting and design of the puppets. Each puppet was around two
and a half feet tall with beautifully sculptured anime style heads which
had the usual remote control mechanisms for lip and eyelid movement that
had been pioneered by the likes of Gerry Anderson.

The Imperial Alliance puppets were among the best designed
for the show, with lots of intricate detail and lovingly made costumes.
Bloody Mary (Makara) of course is a firm favorite with fans, but the other
Imperial characters such as Lt. Kozlo (Orion), Professor Gedora (Caliban)
and the Termoid soldiers all looked fantastic. The workshop crew even
made a few puppets that were to only feature in an individual episode,
or in the case of the two Imperial council members only in a few very
short scenes. This attention to detail and the wonderful workmanship that
went into these puppets goes to show that this project was a definite
labor of love for the makers.

The only trouble with a puppet based show is the restrictions
of the puppets themselves. These puppets were all rod based so any walking
actions had to be acheived behind objects such as rocks etc to avoid the
rod being seen. This must have caused a lot of headaches when tying to
film them. The Imperial characters in particular seemed to be stationery
for much of the series although the termoids did feature in a few action
sequences. Because of the puppets lack of mobility most of the series
action scenes had to be model ship based, or in the case of the Dai X
a combination of models and a specially designed suit so Dai X could do
some ground based stomping. This is one of the major factors of X Bomber's
failure to win over a Japanese audience. From their point of view this
type of story had been told many times before, the imagery was not immensely
original, and the stationary nature of the puppets made the show, in one
critic's eyes almost unwatchable.

The show's saving grace was it's space
battles although even the Japanese audience grew tired of their repetitive
nature. X Bomber failed because it told a generic story in an incredibly
difficult and expensive medium. The puppet nature of the show was to be
it's main selling point, but eventually led to it's cancellation. I personally
don't know what my reaction to X Bomber/Star Fleet would have been If
I hadn't watched it with fresh childlike eyes in 1982. Maybe if the British
public had, had the same programing as the Japanese, Star Fleet might
have been perceived as just another show, but I doubt it. There is something
special about the show and the weirdness of it all definitely fitted in
with the new romantic early Eighties British culture. At the end of the
day Japan's loss was our gain.

This article was written by Shane Perry and featured on the Big Dai X website.
Below are lossless screengrabs from the 2002 Japanese X Bomber DVDs, which Shane uploaded to the X-Archive.